Identifying Valuable Books
While the world of rare book collecting may seem intimidating to the casual observer, it is actually easier to ELIMINATE books that you are thinking about buying at garage sales or auctions. Book dealers do not know the value of every book ever printed in the history of mankind. They depend on prior knowledge, experience AND having access to viable research sources such as the Internet and other rare book dealers such as the Antiquarian Book Society. Their advantage over the general public is simple: They know how to EXCLUDE books based on specific "printer points" that indicate the book has no value whatsoever. We have provided the following guide to help you understand which books you should AVOID purchasing at least 99.9% of the time. Please note that reduced values as indicated below are for books that are NOT signed by the author.
Book Condition Is Important!
It should be obvious without being said but we see this every day in the store: Books that have broken bindings, loose pages, water-damage, mold stains, taped pages, torn up dustjackets, chew marks by rodents, etc. are not desirable to a true collector. NOBODY WANTS THEM, REGARDLESS OF AGE! PERIOD.
Avoid Buying These Printed Materials
Never buy ANY religious books including bibles, hymnals or prayer books. Unless you have one from the 16th century that is hand-illustrated, there is no resale market value for the most printed book in the world. There is virtually no market for any NON-FICTION books such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, reference books or textbooks of ANY KIND including legal and medical titles REGARDLESS OF AGE. It is quite okay to throw away all the school textbooks from Uncle Bob, the family surgeon because NOBODY wants them. Readers Digest Condensed Books, individual Time-Life books, or "combined" books (i.e. books with two or more novels in them) should be avoided at all costs. No cookbooks, songbooks or comic books with a number greater than "10". Please DO NOT BUY any magazines (including the one about the assassination of JFK, landing on the moon, the death of Princess Diana, etc.). EVERYBODY kept a copy! Please DO NOT BUY any newspapers printed after the Civil War unless they contain writings by a popular author such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, L. Ron Hubbard, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, etc. ANY classic literature that is in the public domain such as Shakespeare, Ralph Waldo Emerson, etc. unless it was printed while the author was alive!
Books You Can Use As Kindling
Book Club Editions	Are worth ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
Ex-Library Books	Are Worth ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
Incomplete Number Line	Are worth ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
High Stated Printing	Books that say "Second Printing, Third Impression, etc. are worth ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
Post Copyright Dates	Books that have stated publication dates AFTER the copyright date are worth ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
Things That Reduce The Value Of Books
DustJacket Is Missing	Believe it or not, unless it was bound in leather, virtually EVERY hardcover book printed in the 20th century AND the late 19th century was sold with a dustjacket. Dustjackets were used by publishers to "catch your eye" and market a specific book with a colorful illustration or phrase. It was much cheaper to print these early "marketing materials" on paper rather than on the boards of the book itself. Unfortunately, dustjackets were considered "disposable" by owners. They wanted their book collections to look like a "real" library and usually threw the original dustjacket away! Because of this accepted "fad", most books from the early 20th century have lost their dustjackets. This is the single most important item! Books without their original dustjacket are worth at least 50% less than the appraised value of the same book that retains its dustjacket.
Personalized Inscriptions	Try to avoid books that have personalized inscriptions such as "Happy Birthday", "Merry Christmas", etc. because they reduce the value of a book by at least 25 percent.
Price-Clipped	Books that have a diagonal cut on their dustjacket where someone has "price-clipped" the corner for gift purposes. Value reduction is at least 25%.
Used Bookstore Stamp	Books that have been stamped by a used bookstore have dramatically reduced values. Value reduction is at least 25%.
Remainder Marks	Books that are marked as remainders have dramatically reduced values. Value reduction is at least 25%.
Attributes Of A Valuable Book
Dustjacket Is Present	This is EXTREMELY important! If the book is a true First Edition / First Printing but the dust jacket is in poor condition, we recommend you buy the book anyway. Then you can search for a cheaper copy of a later printing copy and get the dustjacket off of it as long as it MATCHES THE ORIGINAL COMPLETELY. For example, the very first copies of "The Hunt For Red October" by Tom Clancy had SIX (6) paragraphs on the back of the dustjacket. Later editions (and cheaper to acquire) have EIGHT (8) paragraphs. Thus, you cannot swap this dustjacket between two different versions of the book.
Complete Number Line Example 1	THIS is what you are looking for!
Complete Number Line Example 2	THIS is what you are looking for!
Complete Number Line Example 3	THIS is what you are looking for!
No Number Line	THIS is what you are looking for!